This week I am hoping for your help in planning a field trip to search for dinosaur fossils! Where in our 50 states should we go to have an excellent chance of finding dino bones? I need as exact a location as you can provide such as what town is nearby or what highway passes close to our "prospecting" area.
Your assignment will be to find a prospecting location in one state -- but not a state already chosen by someone else who has already posted to this blog. So you need to read the earlier comments to this week's topic first! And then choose a state that no one else has reported on as yet.
The best way to find a likely spot is to find out where dinosaur bones have already been found. If you do a Google search on dinosaur discoveries from a specific state, for example, you will probably find a description of where an exciting dino find occurred. Please report that here -- with enough detail so that we could all get in a van and would have good directions to head over there right away to find more!
I can tell you that some states are much easier places to find dino fossils (and news about previous dino discoveries) than other states! So the earlier you investigate and report (on only one state please!), the easier this task might be.
There are 34 students enrolled in this class so we are hoping to assemble a trip through 34 of our states. I'm looking forward to our planning out what should be a fun and productive (and, unfortunately, imaginary) trip for this class to take!
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Ladies and gents, pack your bags for scenic Gold Spring, Arizona, where the Sarahsaurus aurafontanalis was discovered by paleontologist Sarah Butler a few years ago and just made public a couple of months ago in October!
Gold Spring is in northeastern Arizona, close to the Nevada border and just a titch east of Lake Havasu City - it's a very desert-y area, so in our spare time around the dig, we can go hiking and exploring in the desert, or maybe make a day trip to go boating on Lake Havasu, also home to the famous London Bridge!
We are headed to the Grand-Staircase-Escalante National Monument Outside of Kanab, Utah in the middle, lower, southern part of the state.
http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/grand_staircase-escalante.html
Paleontologists recently uncovered a new two horned dinosaur species related to the ceratopsid group of dinosaurs. The area within the park is known as Laramidia and is apparently a ‘hotbed’ of fossil discoveries right now! The Rocky Mountains were forming pushing up sedimentary rock at the time these finds were dated, the run-off sediment from the mountain formations meeting with the ocean waterway provides an area now ripe with fossils. Sounds fun to me!
The state I would like to prospect in is New Jersey, where the nearly complete skeleton of the Hadrosaurus foulkii was discovered by William Parker Foulke in 1858. The town of Haddonfield is located near the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The discovery of the Hadrosaurus foulkii was an important contribution to paleontology because it allowed paleontologists to reconstruct the skeleton and see a more complete picture of a dinosaur. The Hadrosaurus foulkii is now displayed at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences in Pennslyvania, but the original excavation site was re-established in 1984 and can be visited. We could visit both the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and the Hadrosaurus foulkii excavation site because they are only 20 minutes away from each other!
Alaska, USA Here We Come!!
It's going to be great fun to dig up some of Alaska's state fossil, Mammuthus primigenius or the Wooly Mammoth!! We hit the motherload of Wooly Mammoth fossils that are about 10,000 years old. They started to migrate, to what is now Alaska, 65,000 years ago across the Bering Strait from Siberia.
There has also been found Promerycochoerus superbus, Allosaurus fragilis, Brontotheriidae, and even marine fossils like trilobites and brachiopods.
The best place to look is in the valleys at the base of the Brooks Mountain Range. Tons (literally) of sedimentary rock was deposited when the Brooks Mountain Range was formed during the Crestaceous Period.
It may be hard to get permits since Alaska is pretty much a nature preserve but I am sure Dr.B has contacts and if we grease enough palms maybe we could be dino-digging for Wooly Mammoth fossils soon.
By the way, I have a carved piece of Wooly Mammoth fossil (tusk I believe) from Alaska that is in the shape of a whale's tale. I will show it via web cam at the next live meeting.
Here is a link to a great website for locating dino-digging spots in Alaska. You'll have to copy and paste it the old fashioned way.
http://www.paleoportal.org/index.php?globalnav=time_space§ionnav=state&name=Alaska
A place that I would go to look for dinosaur fossils would be in Glendive, Montana. This is a place where you can pay per day and leave with a nice souvenir of a dinosaur fossil. This place is called Baisch's Dinosaur Digs, LLC. There is camping motels and restaurants near by. Some species that have been found in other adventures include pachycephalosaurs, champsosaurus, thescelosaurus, dromaeosaur, triceratops, and tyrannosaurus rex just to name a few. Glendive is located in South Eastern Montana.
I would like to take an adventure to the great state of South Dakota.
In South Dakota a baby Tyrannosaurus rex was found. Apparently this baby Tyrannosaurus rex was not yet fully developed, but was born with big jaws the size of an adults.
The baby Tyrannosaurus rex was still weak as a baby and was not strong enough to catch itself large prey. With the help of its parents the baby Tyrannosaurus rex was supplied with an adults servings of food.
The baby Tyrannosaurus rex was considered to be about 66 million years old. The baby Tyrannosaurus rex was found with half of a duck-billed platypus in its stomach. The baby Tyrannosaurus rex which a paleontologist nick named Tinker, was a huge help on trying to discover the understanding of a T. Rex's life.
Tinker was about 1350 pounds in weight,and was about 21 feet in length. Information of Tinker was released in December. 1999
I would suggest taking a dinosaur trip to Morrison, Colorado. Morrison is located about twenty minutes southwest of Denver and is well-known for its dinosaur discoveries. In 1877, the remains of the Stegosaurus aramatus and the Apatosaurus ajax were uncovered by paleontologist Arthur Lakes (who was loosely associated with the "Bone Wars" rivalry between Cope and Marsh). Also located in Morrison is the Morrison Natural History Museum, which houses some of the fossils discovered by Lakes. In recent years the museum has also uncovered rare Stegosaurus tracks, which are currently on display.
Also of note is Dinosaur Ridge, an historic dig site designated the Morrison Fossil Area National Natural Landmark (quite a mouthful indeed). This site is significant for not only its dinosaur fossils, but also for dinosaur tracks - hundreds of dinosaur footprints were found in the ridge. The site offers visitors a chance to explore, with trails and exhibits all about dinosaurs.
I think we should head to Texas, cause everything is bigger there, and maybe, so were the Dinosaurs!
Let's head to Millsap, which is a town a little bit North west of the dead center of Texas.
A boy there found two duckbill skeletons, and I'm thinking if they were easy enough for a boy to find, there might be more! Also, there are said to be a lot of footprints in that area, maybe we might catch a peak at some of these too.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to VIRGINIA!
The Blue Ridge Mountains and Piedmont rocks of Virginia (near the central part of the state) has many plant, footprint, and landscape treasures aplenty for anyone who searches there!
Most paleontologists do not find this place intriguing, until they find out that there are Triassic-Jurassic rifts at the Piedmont! These carry some of the best preserved plant life fossils, as well as tracks and fish fossils.
As far as direct dino fossils are considered, this is not a "knock-your-socks-off" adventure-- however, for everything that will help you to understand the dinosaur environments Piedmont and Blue Ridge are some of the best sediment to search under!
More information here: http://teacherfriendlyguide.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=180&Itemid=198
-Kayleigh Maijala
Ladies and gents,
I would like to propose a field trip to scenic northwest Colorado. While there, we can take a tour with the Museum of Western Colorado in Fruita for their Dinosaur Journey, or go on a dinosaur dig with them. In my opinion, this may be a little bit touristy and mostly for kids. I think the real dino action is to be found about two hours north of there, right near the Utah border in a little town known as Dinosaur (that's right, DINOSAUR). There we will find the Dinosaur National Monument, one of the largest concentrations of dinosaur fossils in the U.S.. The area is made up of mountains of sedimentary rock that were part of an ancient riverbed. When the river would flood periodically, the bones would wash downriver, and many embedded themselves in a large sandbar which, over millions of years, became the sandstone mountains. Although the grounds of the Monument itself are protected, I have a feeling we could have some fruitful digs nearby!
Dinosaur is directly off of US 40, and if we want to go to Fruita, we head straight south on CO 64 & 139 to I-70.
See you guys in Dinosaur!
I will be heading to Oklahoma. First stop on the trip will be to Oklahoma city to boo the "Thunder" in a "Sonics" jersey.
Next on the agenda will be to Boise city. In the 1930's a group of OU students found Saurophaganax maximus. There are also an abundance of trilobites in Oklahoma. The dry prairie land is good for the preservation of fossils.
Given the dry, arid nature of the state, I'm thinking that New Mexico, or any state located in the American Southwest, would provide a unique opportunity to find well-preserved specimen. In particular, I would be looking for the Nodosaurus, whose remains have been found in areas as diverse as the East Coast, Appalachia, the Midwest and Southwest.
I feel that the Southwest, in particular, is the best location to look for the nodosaurus, given that the relatively consistent climate and conditions that the region offers would best preserve the fossils.
If I could pick any state to look for dinosaurs, it would probably be in Arizona. The hot dusty climate and desert wastelands would be a great place to look for dinosaurs!
Connecticut
Specifically we are going to visit Dinosaur state park home of the "largest dinosaur track sites in North America."* The fossil tracks are located in the parks 55,000 square foot exhibit center. They include some 250 different dinosaur species from around 200Ma.
Since we are in Connecticut we should also visit the Connecticut Valley where Dinosaurs have been discovered since the 1800s. For this part of our trip I would suggest picking up "Great Day Trips in the Connecticut Valley of the Dinosaurs." By Brendan Hanrahan** Personally I think it would interesting to check out Barton Cove (directions on page 245)*** and see if some trace fossils can be found.
Between Dinosaur State Park and Great Day Trips in the Connecticut Valley of the Dinosaurs I'm sure that we will see Dinosaur Fossils albeit tracks but that in itself can teach us much about the age of Dinosaurs.
*http://www.dinosaurstatepark.org/
**http://www.cttrips.com/pages/ctdinos51905.html
***http://books.google.com/books?id=kJDoST4G0sMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Great+Day+Trips+in+the+Connecticut+Valley+of+the+Dinosaurs&source=bl&ots=Fnx4JRZT_V&sig=NOy9rsnsb2Bui_xwJGYUeneDy6o&hl=en&ei=wbgzTY7lMoSasAOF3IWtBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
You say you want a shot at some fully articulated dinosaur fossils, huh? We are piling in the bus and bearing southeast, to the rugged terrain of Wyoming. The Warm Springs Ranch awaits our intrepid crew, just outside of Thermopolis, WY contains some of the most dynamic recent dinosaur finds in the United States.
As recently as 2009, fully articulated fossils of such giants as Camarasaurus, and Stegosaurus have been discovered. The area has also yielded examples of the mighty carnivore Allosaurus and the world's longest dinosaur, Diplodocus. The Warm Springs Ranch is an area over 500 acres and houses nearly 60 dig sites. The Howe dinosaur quarry near Shell, WY gave up the recent Camarasaurus find, a gigantic herbivore. The dig can be arranged through the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, a vibrant resource where we could research our prospective finds. We could study up on some current paleontological finds including a stunning specimin of Archaeopteryx, a prime example of the genetic bond between birds and dinosaurs. They also house a fossil prep and casting lab.
To get there, we head east on I-90 into Montana, go south on US 310, connect to MT-27, and eventually connect to WY-120 which runs into Thermopolis. Permission slips must be signed and in hand.
For our trip we will be heading to the state of Iowa! (Try not to look disappointed, Iowa really is a lovely place to visit)
Specifically we are heading NE of the state to Guthrie County where dinosaur fossils of the giant duck-billed Hadrosaur have been discovered - the first dinosaur discovery in the state! There have only been bits and pieces of bones (mostly vertebra) found in the state of Iowa, but there have been much larger discoveries in the neighboring states leading scientists to believe there is more to find in Iowa.
Ladies and gents, welcome to Laurel, MD, a quaint, historic spot between our nation's capital and Baltimore! Of course, the history we're here for has nothing to do with the colonial homes in the historic district!
The Cretaceous Era brought a number of dinosaurs into this region, including Astrodon and Priconodon species. In a 41-acre expanse aptly named the Dinosaur Park, amateur paleontologists and volunteers -- like us! -- can help contribute to the region's dinosaur discoveries.
Since the park's public opening in 2009, a 7-year old boy has located the jawbone of a meat-eating predator and a 9-year old girl has found a piece of tailbone from a kind of raptor.
The park is part of a geologic formation called the Muirkirk Deposit, composed of sediments and clays so good for fossil preservation. To get there, leaving from the DC/Baltimore area, we'd take Route 295 to Route 197 and head north to Laurel. Then we go to the end of Muirkirk Road to reach the Montpelier Mansion grounds -- which is included as part of of the park.
Hello everyone,
For the dino digging trip I would take everyone to western Georgia to the Eutaw Formation along the Gulf Coast Plain. Two bones have been found from pterodactyloids here. There were discovered as the first southeasternmost North American discoveries. This was also the first pterosaur found in the state of Georgia. The Eutaw Formation has a massive glauconitic sandstone which has been identified as rock from the Santonian stage, which was during the Late Cretaceous period. The Eutaw Formation stretches across Alabama, Mississippi, and of course Georgia. All we have to do is head north on I-75 from Atlanta, and we will run right into it!
http://www.jstor.org/pss/1304987
We're heading to Alabama, where the giant whale fossil Basilosaurus cetoides (Zeuglodon) is found. Officially made the state fossil in 1984, the Basilosaurus was first found in Choctaw and Washington counties which are located in the southwest corner of the state. These fossils are found most abundantly in Alabama and the state features the two most fully constructed Zeuglodons's in the world.
I was going to suggest Maryland but upon rereading the post this was already taken. This was what I had intended on posting
[I recommend looking for Astrodon the state dinosaur of Maryland and a close relative to brachiosaurus. They have been found in Muirkirk, Maryland. Not only would they be easier to find (being quite large) but also we could do a patriotically motivated side trip to the nations capital.]
Speaking of the nations capitol, Capitalsaurus official state dinosaur of Washington DC would make a lovely find. Especially because if we found even a semi-complete one we would probably have the greatest find of the specific dinosaur in history
As for the location, according to wikipedia: Capitalsaurus" fossils were discovered in January 1898 at the intersection of First and F Streets S.E., in the District of Columbia - an intersection now designated as Capitalsaurus Court. These fossils were not uncovered by any paleontological activity, but as a by-product of sewer work.
So if we could get a permission to dig up the area we might find something the sewer workers missed. And unlike the other sites listed we actually can tell the location were to dig, right down to the cross streets.
We'll go to Turners Falls, Massachusetts! Here, we'll see tons of footprints and trackways of all sorts and sizes of theropods, ornithischians, and other dinos that were trecking around during the time Pangea was splitting apart in the early Jurassic period. The footprints are in red sandstones which were deposited during the formation of the Newark rift basin.
Turners Falls is a little village in the town of Montague, MA. We'll just hop on I90 Eastbound all the way to Springfield, MA. Then we'll head North on I91 to Turners Falls. Roadtrip!
I propose a road trip to the lovely oceanless state of Kansas- who would have thought that dinosaur fossils ended up here because of a sea?
The Smoky Hill Chalk in Kansas has produced the remains of at least 8 dinosaurs- all because the dinosaurs would die, rivers would flood, bodies would bloat, become food for sharks, and preserve their bones in chalk (because they were perfectly aware of this long after they died).
The first dinosaur found here was a hadrosaur discovered by O.C Marsh and was the only hadrosaur here until 2005, when remains of a larger hadrosaur were discovered. Many ankylosaur skeletons have turned in the chalk.
Who could say no to this trip? We can imagine Kansas as something other than flatland and dig in chalk for marine & terrestrial creatures. Sound a-ok to me. :)
http://www.oceansofkansas.com/Dinosaur.html
We are heading to Arkansas! We are going to the town of Lockburgs, where the bones of a Early Cretaceous therapod where found.
To get there, we should start by flying to Little Rock Intl Airport. Once we leave the airport we would need to merge on to W I-440 to quickly get to I-30 W. We will be on this Interstate for about 131 miles until we need to merge on to AR-108 which will loop us into Texas but then we need to turn right onto US-71 N back into Arkansas. Once we are on N-71 we will turn right onto E MAIN to get us into Lockesburg.
We have arrived!
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